Jeff Choate observed Chris Murray having a moment of clarity during Montana State’s most recent disheartening loss. At one point during the second half of Montana State’s 20-14 defeat to Northern Arizona in Bozeman, Murray turned to offensive intern Sam Richardson and said, ‘Pretty soon, this thing is going to slow down and I’m going to be good.’
Montana State can only hope the words of the recently 18-year-old Murray ring true.
[restrict paid=”true”]“That indicates to me that the game is still fast for him,” Choate said on Monday. “When the game does slow down, I think we will see a marked improvement in his ability to make some decisions.”
Murray, a true freshman who has played increased snaps over the last two weeks as junior Tyler Bruggman continues struggling, has show his electric ability at times. But sometimes, he appears lost, from the string of fumbles (he has four fumbles and MSU has lost possession three times) to inconsistent decision making to ups and downs throwing the football.
Murray turned 18 years old on Sunday. He and all other true freshmen at Montana State are not available for interviews.
Bruggman earned the start last week against Sacramento State and started 1-of-8 before Murray took over. The freshman from Lawndale High in Inglewood, California ripped off three touchdown runs, including scores of 59 and 58 yards. He finished with 187 yards rushing, the second-best rushing total ever by a Bobcat quarterback. But he and the Bobcats were unable to seal a game in which they led 38-21. Instead, Sac State rallied for its first win, 41-38.
Bruggman again started against NAU, completing just 3-of-10 passes as Montana State gained just 96 yards on its first 34 plays leading up to the midpoint of the third quarter.
“We had a discussion about it and really felt like Tyler had the best week of practice first and foremost,” Choate said following his team’s third straight loss to begin Big Sky Conference play. “I think Chris feels more comfortable coming off the bench. We did tell Chris within the first three series, you are going in. We will continue to expand that.
“You can see at times, his understanding and awareness of what’s going on, there’s a lot of information. To call a play even can be a challenging thing. He has a lot of information to process. He’s handling it nicely and he will continue to progress.”
After Sacramento State scored the go-ahead touchdown two weeks ago, MSU reinserted Bruggman despite the fact he’d been on the bench since early in the first half. He completed a long pass but could not guide MSU on a comeback.
Last week in Bozeman, Montana State elected to stick with Murray during the two-minute drill. The rookie scrambled up the middle on the first play, forcing MSU to burn a timeout. The Bobcats drew a holding flag on the second play, setting up a third down with 19 yards left. With the game hanging in the balance, Murray uncharacteristically stepped into the pocket and laced a throw to freshman Kevin Kassis for a first down. Murray threw a quick slant on a rope to John D’Agostino on the next play, then found Kassis along the sideline into NAU territory before the completion was ruled out of bounds.
The two-minute drill ended as Siupeli Anua crushed Murray from behind, forcing a fumble that NAU recovered. But Montana State’s young quarterback showed flashes of a newfound poise regardless.
“He’s had that ability, I’ve seen it at practice every day,” said MSU senior captain Chad Newell following the loss. “His ability to come into the game tonight, huge pressure situation in front of a huge home crowd and step up the way he did and really lead a drive that almost won the game was impressive. I was proud of him.”
Murray did not lead the Bobcats on a game-winning drive but he did help MSU execute its only two scoring marches of the evening. Junior Jayshawn Gates sparked the first with a 32-yard gain on a jet sweep. Newell rumbled for 19 yards then punched in his 29th career touchdown, tied for second in school history, from nine yards out for MSU’s first score. On the next drive, senior Gunnar Brekke bounced a run 28 yards into NAU territory and Murray capped the drive with a 13-yard sprint to his seventh touchdown of his freshman season.
“At halftime, we tried to streamline some things on offense and dial in on a few runs we felt like we could execute well,” Choate said.
“(Gap schemes) like that really have been one of our more productive plays all year. We were really fortunate on a couple of the explosive runs that we had the exact right play called for the pressure they brought. They brought an overload outside blitz on one of them and ended up with two guys outside the kick out block and nobody where we were running the ball. On the other one, Gunnar’s late in the game, they blitzed the backside gap and we were able to wall that off and they were short on the front side.”
Montana State has done a good job protecting the passer this season up until Saturday. The Bobcats surrendered just three sacks in the first five outings of the year. On Saturday with junior left tackle Dylan Mahoney on the bench, MSU had no answer for Anua. The hulking senior had three sacks, four tackles for loss and two forced fumbles to earn Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week honors.
“I think our offensive line has been one of our more consistent units,” Choate said. “We struggle in pass protection certainly against NAU last week and some of that was one-on-one matchups. When we have those matchups that are not in our favor, we have to do a good job of trying to chip our way out, leave a tight end in for protection. That’s something as a coaching staff in hindsight that we could’ve done a much better job of is helping those guys out.”
Choate noted that Mahoney’s turf toe has him “week to week” and he is questionable to go against Weber State on Saturday. In his place, redshirt freshman Mitch Brott and senior Patrick Carroll took turns at left tackle while Carroll and junior Caleb Gillis took turns at right tackle.
“Not having Dylan, it was noticeable,” MSU first-year offensive line coach Brian Armstrong said. “It was not just at the left tackle, but more at the right tackle. When you move a guy over and replace him with another guy, the shuffle part of it, I really felt like four games into the season, we were starting to really develop some consistency and play well together. Football is what it is and a guy goes down and you have to shuffle the deck. We need to have a great week of practice and find that consistency again.”
NAU brought just three rushers on the final play but Anua exploded past Gillis and won his one-on-one like he did most of Saturday evening. Choate said the film showed Murray “getting ready to launch and (Mitch) Herbert is uncovered.”
“It’s going to be a touchdown unless he’s able to field the ball,” Choate lamented on Monday. “That’s the margin of victory, the margin of defeat is very, very small for us right now. Very proud of the way these guys competed.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
